Hannibal: "The Number of the Beast is 666"Review

Note: While Hannibal has been moved to Saturdays in the US, it continues to air on Thursdays in Canada. That being the case, I’m running my reviews Thursday nights for IGN Canada readers and then re-promoting on Saturday night for the US.

Per usual, full spoilers for the episode follow, so beware if you haven’t seen yet!

The penultimate episode of Hannibal was a very busy, bloody and audacious one that found Will and Jack embarking on a dangerous plan to lure the Dragon to them – with dire results for Chilton.

I must say seeing that plan in motion was a lot of fun, complete with some very funny moments, as the unlikely group of Will, Jack, Chilton, and Freddie all worked together - mostly from Will going so far over the top with his goading language about "the Tooth Fairy," and Chilton's reactions to what he was saying. Of course, what followed would hardly be funny...

Which is to say, holy $#*! on the visual of Dolarhyde biting Chilton’s lips off! So nasty and visceral and amazing. Yes, it’s from the books, but as always, this show doesn’t hold back when it comes to delivering the red stuff. The entire sequence of Dolarhyde holding Chilton hostage was fantastic, with terrific performances from both Raúl Esparza and Richard Armitage. Chilton, all things considered, did the best he could, after all – saying all the right things to try and appease Dolarhyde and provide him with anything he needed to calm him. But when you’re dealing with a guy like that, well… there’s only so much you can do.

Reba showing up only added to the tension, as Chilton was forced to sit there quietly, while Reba at one point seemed to somewhat sense his presence – or at least that something was wrong. The visuals here were also fantastic, from Dolarhyde looking at Reba through the distortion of the gate at his door to seeing him crawl over that desk towards Chilton like an animal.

I do want to delve further into how this storyline is adapting and diverging from the novel Red Dragon, so skip ahead a paragraph if you’ve never read that book or seen the previous adaptations and don’t want to spoil yourself on what is now a notable deviation…

So very interesting that Chilton was the one get taken and tortured here, instead of Freddie, huh? Given Freddie’s storyline in Season 2, it was difficult to see how she could be the Dragon’s victim without it feeling like they were covering somewhat similar ground, and so Bryan Fuller instead had it be another character entirely to have that fate. But one that was an excellent substitute, given Chilton’s own shameless exploitation of situations – here amplified, as we learned about all his writing plans, “Blood and Chocolate” included. It also was clever to have Dolarhyde still burn Chilton in the wheelchair, this time as a direct message to Will for using that fake out in Season 2 – which was, of course, taken directly from Freddie’s death in the book.

Of course, I need to ponder… is Chilton really and truly dead now? In the book, it’s very clear what happens after Will’s conversation with this burnt, misshapen person – their death is explicit. But not here. And given Chilton’s already been something of the horrific Wile E. Coyote of Hannibal, I wonder if Bryan Fuller intended to bring him back yet again, with even less of his body left.

It was fairly ridiculous that Alana would give Hannibal Dolarhyde’s package first, without opening it herself – but almost worth it just for the reveal that Hannibal ate one of Chilton’s lips, just because he could.

Also a bit odd was jumping to Reba as Dolarhyde’s bound up hostage herself. Yes, we’d seen the huge conflict within him over her, but what made him cross this line? I wonder if a scene was cut for time showing this moment?

Still, her finding out that this man she was falling for was this deranged killer was another riveting moment – as his true psychosis was underlined by him saying two families were “changed,” given his absolute commitment to his belief that he is transforming these people, not murdering them.

Meanwhile, this episode opened with a rather huge, much more quiet moment, as Will met with Bedelia and they got very real about Hannibal. First off, I love Will meeting with Bedelia like this, because it makes twisted sense that after everything they’ve both gone through, they would form this connection, as bad an idea as it may be.

Everything that Bedelia said about Hannibal letting Will build a family that he was confident he could then take from him sounded right – again, in that bizarre way where it’s both Hannibal destroying Will and wanting him for himself.

And then Will asked a very direct question, “Is Hannibal in love with me?” And Bedelia not only told him yes, she asked Will, “Do you ache for him?” I was surprised to see the show get so overt with defining Hannibal’s feelings for Will in such a way, only because they hadn’t before. But let’s face it, none of this is a surprise. Hannibal’s wish to make Will his true equal and partner, to run off with him with Abigail as their surrogate (murderous) daughter… It’s all been a very bloody, Lecter-ized love story since the show began. And with Hannibal coming to an end, why not put it all on the table, as it were?

I again wonder how much Bryan Fuller suspected this could be it as he conceived these episodes, as we not only got a much more direct definition of Hannibal’s feelings for Will (even if Will’s are still murky, but obviously conflicted), but some very fun mentions of “lambs” here. We may never see this version of Hannibal Lecter meet Clarice Starling, but it’s hard not to see some direct nods as Hannibal warned of “The Lamb’s wrath” whose “retribution is even greater than the Red Dragon.”

And wouldn't you know it, but next week's finale is called "The Wrath of the Lamb!"

The Verdict

My biggest anxiety is that a ton is in play here, from the Red Dragon storyline to Hannibal and Will’s dynamic, with just one episode left that now bears the weight of being The End – and set up a future we may never see. But this episode once again showed just how dynamic and thrilling Hannibal can be, so let’s just all try and treasure next week’s finale and the end of one hell of a TV show, shall we?

Amazing

In the penultimate episode, Will and Jack come up with a dangerous plan to lure in the Red Dragon.